


Lance Discovers Modern Mirrors

by Bookfish



Series: Vampire Lance [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 1930s, Gen, Historical References, Vampire AU, Vampires, kind of crack, lance is a vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 15:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14138754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookfish/pseuds/Bookfish
Summary: Mirrors are the bane of vampire existence... until the materials they're made of change.





	Lance Discovers Modern Mirrors

It was the late 1930s, sometime in the spring, he couldn’t really be sure. Being as long lived as he was meant he couldn’t be bothered with tracking passage of time the way humans were. Time wasn’t nearly as precious to someone who didn’t have to worry about dying by natural causes. Whatever the date was, it wasn’t important. It was just another cycle of the sun that wouldn’t age his features or change his existence. 

Lance Vasquez had accepted that life would always be the same for him. He had accepted that he could never quite settle into human society because despite lacking the nocturnal nature of most vampires… he was still not human. He had accepted that he would never see his face because mirrors never reflected vampires and even the clever invention of the camera required mirrors. That’s not to say he didn’t know what his face looked like… he’d seen it before he’d been turned. He just couldn’t remember the details. Surely, he still had tan sun kissed skin that reminded him of his birthplace in Cuba… and he likely still had brown eyes and brown hair. But what shape was his nose? Did he have dimples when he smiled? Had he aged at all or was he still eternally 18?  

The thing about being a vampire in the 1930s was, humans had long forgotten that vampires were real… which meant he had to be extra careful to not blow his cover. Stay away from mirrors and cameras. Because there was no explaining why he had no reflection. There were definitely kinks in his strategies of avoiding mirrors… like… having to check around corners and through windows of public spaces before proceeding into potential range of a mirror. Yeah, it looked funny when he walked into a store and stopped at every corner to make sure there were no mirrors before heading down the aisle. But, it wasn’t like he usually needed to go into an aisle with mirrors anyway. Bars that had mirrors were the worst and he usually kept a mental list of which ones he knew didn’t have mirrors. It did put a damper on spontaneous bar visits… and he had never been inside a public bathroom since turning… but as long as he never got caught red handed, he was safe. Safety was slightly more important than having fun… most of the time.

He had slipped up a few times, he knew that much. But the thing about it was, if he swore a human to secrecy… they usually kept his secret. It probably had more to do with him flashing his fangs at them than actual goodwill… but he did what he had to do to keep his secret safe. Besides, the one human who hadn’t kept his secret had been called a liar for claiming vampires were real and had ended up in an asylum. Did he feel a little bad about that? Yes. But they should’ve known that spouting about vampires would get them more side-eye than actual listening ears. Vampires were forgotten. Living ghosts. Non-existent in society. Nobody believed in vampires anymore.

With modern science and shifts in religion, he couldn’t pretend to be surprised in the rise of different brands of skepticism. After all, when humans suddenly could map the stars and could send sound signals to each other with their little machines called radios… who believed in the supernatural?

Lance wouldn’t pretend he was interested in human science. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting… it just wasn’t his primary area of interest. Really, it was Allura’s fault he’d even attended the stupid human faire. She’d gone on about how she wanted to see the inventions and gadgets and insisted he ought to come with her and he’d said no… but then she’d made that face… the one with the big eyes and fluttery lashes that he could never say no to. He was never teaching someone how to use puppy dog eyes again… not when they could turn such an effective trick back around on him.

It was Allura who didn’t check the area before dragging him along to look at some radio set ups at a table next to some telescopes. Precious new vampire she was, she still forgot about the mirrors. Lance noticed it first. 

At first, he felt wary when he noticed there was a mirror-looking surface in the corner of his eye. But nobody had said anything, so maybe it wasn’t really a mirror. That’s what he thought until he saw the reflection of a human across the room shift in the corner of his vision on the reflective surface. When he turned, he nearly jumped out of his skin. This was definitely a mirror. A scientific mirror without all the frills of decorative mirrors… but he could  _ see his face _ . If he still had a heartbeat, it would’ve stopped in that moment. Maybe if he wasn’t already undead, he would’ve dropped dead right there. Instead, he stood there gaping at the mirror like he’d never seen a mirror before in his life. Which to be fair, was half accurate in that he’d not seen himself in a mirror for a very, very long time. 

He probably looked a little desperate as he crossed the open space to stand before the mirror, but he couldn’t care. His face. His  _ face _ . There was his nose, small and tilted upwards. When he started smiling wildly at the mirror he could see a dimple form on one side. He could see all the familiar lines of his face that looked like the years hadn’t changed them at all. Truly, he was just as young and attractive as he’d been before. Nothing was stopping him from flashing a wide smile, wink, and confident finger guns at his reflection. He looked  _ good _ .

The man standing with the telescopes looked a little baffled. “Um… can I help you?” 

“What is this mirror made of?” Lance turned to the scientist, probably still smiling way too wide for what would be normal.

The man’s eyebrow went up but he answered calmly. “We just developed a technique to coat mirrors in aluminium instead of silver. It’s better for the telescopes.” 

“Fascinating.” Lance decided to be polite and make a show of looking at the telescope plans and parts. He really didn’t care. He was still giddy from the experience of being able to see himself in a mirror again. Aluminium. Who knew? He took back everything he’d ever said about human sciences being boring. If mirrors could be made to reflect him, he would gush about science for the rest of his immortal life. Science was great. Glancing back at the mirror, he squinted a little. Science said he needed to start moisturizing again. Go figure 200 years of neglect had taken a toll on his skin. “Allura! We need to go shopping right now.” 

“But we just got here!” Allura argued, digging her heels into to try to avoid him dragging her out of the faire.

“Yes.” He leaned in close to her and uttered very quietly. “And I just saw my face for the first time in 300 years and it needs a _ serious intervention _ right now.” 

“Lance… your face is fine.” 

“My face… is dry. I am going to get lotion and face masks and all those other modern wonders of science and save my skin.” It was not optional. Lance Vasquez deserved to have a healthy face. Even if he was technically dead.

Allura groaned, and probably made a mental promise to return to the faire again later without Lance in tow, but let herself be lead out and down the road to the nearest boutique. Even Allura didn’t have the heart to tell Lance that face care was mostly a woman thing. Lance was Lance. He didn’t care about what was meant for women or for men. If he had no fear wearing a skirt at a party with friends, he probably had no shame buying face products meant for women. It was a battle even Allura wasn’t going to fight. She knew what Lance would say. _ “Human norms change all the time Allura, just because it’s meant for women this decade doesn’t mean it will be only for women the next.”  _

When… a few years later… Lance was able to wander down an aisle with mirrors and find several that held his reflection for sale… he definitely bought 10 of them to put around his house. Because if there was one thing to be known about Lance… it was that now that he could see his face, he was going to do what he had to to keep seeing it so he could take proper care of it so that even in 1000 years he’d still be as gorgeous as he was when he was 18. Not even being undead could stop Lance now. Because mirrors were made of aluminium in the modern world.

 


End file.
